the fabric of my life...........

I have fabric from projects past

I have fabric I have bought and never used

I have fabric bought, donated, given and thrifted

My fabric collects fabric

I have old fabric so thin it needs to be backed to be sewn

I have fabric that holds memories of baby clothes and Christmas dresses

I have fabric whose history belongs to families I have never known

I have serious serious fabric.......

and now I have this............

and I yearn for THIS

Everything else seems immaterial

( ha ha ha................... immaterial get it ?? get it ???)

Vanity thy name is Jodie

More on the quilt show !!

I had a great time at the show picking up little bits and pieces as we worked our way through row H, had some scones G, F, E a few fat quarters , kind of like fabric foreplay really, as I knew where I was heading....Row D !!! Patchwork on Central Park !!!

I $pent $ome $erious time at this $tall..............and who wouldn't?

These fabrics by Kristen Doran are just so good - I love every single one of them . They also had fabrics by the delightfully talented Shannon over at Aunty Cookie (all of which I already own). My favourite of Kristen's fabrics was the only photo I fluffed ........... ( to blog midweek I have to lay all my stuff out the night before in front of the window and hope the sun comes out for a photo before work, so I am never sure if I have a good photo until it is too late to try again). I think I'll make a cushion with it, I might save the photo till I have done something !!!

So where does the vanity kick in ? why right about Row B where they have ribbon printing while you wait. EEEEEEEEKKKKK type cute. I fussed and bothered for a full 1 minute before deciding I had to have some but wasn't sure what to put on it, Ric-Rac? what if I change blogs??? So I decided to keep it simple......

I may have been a little exhausted or simply bathing in the post fabric- buying glow or maybe I am truly vain but lets just say I think I have enough here to keep me labelling gifts until I am about 90 !

(maybe just bit more from the show tomorrow if you can stand it )

What a day !!!

Today I went to the Melbourne Quilt and Craft show .
Before we left I had to prepare my "car craft"- everyone had some car craft except the driver and Annie gave Kate crochet lessons in the back seat.

I took along a bit of embroidery and the yo yo maker.


I was really hoping to have my "Big Project " finished to take along today but it was not to be - Here she is, just ever so slightly unfinished. This is the first Nanna-trolley or shopping jeep I have reconditioned with fabric - all the others have been oilcloth and I am quite happy with it so far - I have about another eight of these stashed behind the bedroom door ready for a recondition, funnily enough I don't have a spare eight weeks to do it in.



I quilted the back fabric to give a bit more body and I need to attach the lid and she will be finished. I am not sure if it needs a little something- I was thinking a little red "something " on the black fabric in the right hand lower corner????

So all of this was before we even left... the day was huge and I shall tell you all about it tomorrow (my birthday ) and show you all the delicious fabrics I bought and all the new projects I have planned............

arggghhh!

This is Pirate Luke - a prototype for the dolls I am making with the Grades 5 and 6 kids at school.

His head is printed on Inkjet printable fabric and then sewn to a very simple gingerbread man type shape.

We painted the basic clothes on and then went from there. His belt buckle is a ring pull from a can and his little hook is a cup hook. We just used regular paint from the artroom . I think he needs some little buckles or something on his boots and maybe a necklace of some sort.

One down and 23 to go.

Off to the Melbourne Quilt and Craft Fair tomorrow!

Warning - suggested swear words - read at your own risk.

(I would like to ask that people do not comment on this post - lets just let it go shall we)

I am not quite sure what tone I wish to take with this post.

As you can see I have deleted my whiplash challenge. After a busy week at work I checked in this morning to find a little battle being waged in the comments of that post. My email account has been flooded with very unsavoury emails .
My commonsense brain tells me not to be threatened by these emails, as of course this person does not know where I live and would never carry out the things they said - but the other part of me - you know that part that feels sick to the stomach when you think of your children being harmed, well it is in there too.

So................ Dear Nutcase , You win . No More Post but not for the reasons you think.

I did NOT copy anyone elses work - would I be stupid enough to do that and then post it on a site like whiplash where so many people will see it? My removal of the post is down to you and your disgusting threats. I have reported all your emails to you host. I have removed the email link from my blog and I have stopped anonymous comments, so the time has come for you to simply Go Away - Move on - F*** off as I am no longer listening.

Weekend

I had the best day yesterday !!

I spent the whole day, except for a phone call and a trip to collect Jemma from work, in bed reading Harry Potter (no spoilers I promise). What a book !!!!!

I am a bit sad that there will be no more though and fully expect some kids at school to fall into the post Harry void with their reading.

On Friday I bought some little 2 1/2 inch squares from Ballarat patchwork - they are just so cute....

I am going to use them as the centres for some Wonky log cabin squares I want to make - I just love putting all that clashing colour together and it is a good way to use up a bit of everything.

I fluffed this one up a bit in the middle - oops

and another one bites the dust !

And another one down and another one down and another one bites the dust !

YEH!

I made this with a felted jumper. It is the same pattern as the previous post but the handles are attached to the body of the bag first and then sewn into the bottom seam. (does that make sense? ) No magnetic clasp for this one as I have fallen out of love with them lately. The bag I made for myself a while ago has a large magnetic clasp - so large in fact it is hard to open and my pulling at it has started to tear the lining - yes I can fix it but I can't be bothered. Bigger is not always better Jodie !!!

I have also been toiling away at "The Big Project". I have quilted a mass of this fabric - probably more than I will need- It is the same fabric as the bag handles - lovely patterned black - the photo has just washed it out a bit.

I want to say a huge Happy Birthday to Annie - pop on over to her Flower Garden and wish her a happy birthday- she might just give you a slice of cake....

Ticking off the list

Ok, So I haven't done everything in the list of the last post but I have roughed up a pattern for the doll for school (huge relief). I might actually try and sew one up this afternoon. (not even close)

I am not really into photos of myself (what an understatement) but thought I might use the same idea to make a doll of myself to put in my blogger profile ......stay tuned on that one- I am not promising !

I have finished the two frilly bags - I tried out my exceptionally limited embroidery skills. I mean that truly, I can only do one stitch - I just do it bigger and smaller as I need. I can live with them - they are very happy.

I made these with a combo of new and vintage fabrics - I have quite a stash of vintage fabrics that I rarely use but I love the way these fabrics came together. They have little frills on the last two layers.

The shape is simple and super easy. With Connor's help this morning I learnt how to insert into paint blah blah blah computer blah megasomething blah...... I had a few goes at this because it was hard to make it so enormous that it could be read.

Anyway that is the shape I used - I have made many many bags with this shape - with little carry handles or long shoulder bag handles. If you turn it the other way you get a more basket shaped tote and you can paper-bag fold the bottom corners (either way) to add a gusset.

You know I could have ironed that piece of fabric for the photo ......yeh right !!!

Getting nowhere fast

Apart from the mammoth felting day I seem to have been just diddling along and get nowhere in the craft stakes.
So with the rest of this week not at work , here goes.

• I need to come up with a basic boy doll and girl doll shape for a project i said i would do with Grades 5 and 6 at school. My plan is that each child will create a doll with their own face on it. I have 5 two hour sessions - This is my gorgeous niece Rosie who agreed to be my proto-type face. We will paint on the basic clothing and then embellish after that..... This is a non - negotiable must do craft for this week.

• This bag needs to be finessed (actually started might be a better term. )I have done nothing but cut it out and make but not yet quilt the straps.

• These two bags need linings, pockets and straps - like hardly anything really.
  

• Poor little Poppy is still nude but she is all sewn up and even eventually got a tail.

Today at the op shop I got the cutest bag ! It kind of fits in with my coat hanger collection so it may end up on the wall I think. It is made of all those little chopped up bits of plastic. aaaaah what a craft !!!

The BIG project that I have bought all the fabric for involves a hacksaw, bolts, nuts, screws, staple gun - lots of fabric and crossed fingers. I haven't started yet but I am determined to do it - Can't wait to show you (if it works of course).

Also have some crazy stripey legged dolls and hedgehogs slam-dancing in my brain this week as well. They may just have to be happy with being consigned to a piece of paper somewhere for another day at this rate.

We felted - and we felt it

I was going to be such a good blogger these school holidays and post every day and now - look almost a week gone and still no blogging.

On Thursday a bunch of us craftsters got together to have a go at a big wet felting project !.

Pouring rain meant the project was indoors with 8 women a truckload of kids, bamboo blinds, natural fleece, dyed fleece , muffins, chocolate cake, quiche, pastries, pie, sponge cake and lots of cups of tea.

This was a very hands on day and one of the gorgeous kids took the photos for us .

Here we go laying out all the wool fibres onto some bubble wrap. I forgot to get photos of my project at this early stage so this is Annie's project. We then wet it all down with warm soapy water and gave it a little massage. After that it was bubble wrap on top and roll it up into the bamboo blinds to start rollin'

200 times, then a quarter turn of the prefelt, 200 times quarter turn etc etc - you get the picture. Of course on the long side we had to use two blinds . This really got a sweat up I can tell you and it took a long long time....

We rotated stations around the bench and even got the kids in to have a go - or ten.

This is called a prefelt- it is very very thin and has started to all hold together but is not fully felted. (I have to add here we had never done this before so we were kind of winging it).Once we were happy with this piece we then cut / tore / eased it apart into strips and we also eased open any thin bits because I wanted holes in the strips.

This is Sue ! and on the inside she is waving madly to her sister Anne in Hong Kong . Hi Anne !!!!!

We then laid the prefelt strips onto black tissue silk and began the felting process all over again. This time we used cold water as we didn't want too much shrinkage until the wool fibres had grabbed onto the silk. Then it was back to the endless rolling - we eventually moved to the floor where we rolled the big long roll with our feet.

Once the felt had started to migrate (straight from the instructions that word ) into the silk we could go a bit faster by heating up the whole thing in the microwave.... then you guessed it - a bit more rolling.


The last step was fun- 2 min in the microwave then throw it on the bench 100 times, back in the microwave and more throwing. This shocks the fibres ! Eventually it just works and ......Voila!!!!

This was one of the big projects but we all had a dabble with smaller more manageable ones throughout the day - I'll pop some pics up tomorrow before this post becomes as long as the felting day did !

Gocco !!!!!

Sung to the tune of Rubber Duckie and with the same amount of enthusiasm ( and talent) as Ernie from Sesame street.

"Mr Gocco, You're the one

You make printing so much fun !

Mr Gocco I'm awfully fond of you - de doo de doo de doo"

And you know what? I know there are little specks where there shouldn't be little specks and I know it's because I forgot to use the blue filter thingy. I also know that I could have a more professional - less handmade finish by making tags a thousand or so other ways but I won't because ............

I LOVE Mr Gocco

and all his little specks !